MP 7,1 1TB SSD in 7,1 Mac Pro

[PowerMike G5]

I've decided to go with the 1TB option for my new Mac Pro, but am I correct in that the SSDs are in a pre-configured software RAID?

My interest is actually in using one 500GB SSD for the boot and the other for a media cache/scratch disk. Then use my Highpoint PCIe card with my 970 Pro SSDs in RAID as a source media drive.

 

[bsbeamer]

Believe they are setup in HARDWARE RAID-0 by default, but maybe someone has seen something different to suggest otherwise.

 

[PowerMike G5]

Thanks bsbeamer. I didn't even think about this till now. I'm hoping they can be separated into 2 SSDs in the OS, but hoping someone can confirm.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

Thanks bsbeamer. I didn't even think about this till now. I'm hoping they can be separated into 2 SSDs in the OS, but hoping someone can confirm.

It's the same setup as the iMac Pro (T2 with two NAND blades). There's very little to no chance you could separate them out into separate physical devices.

 

[PowerMike G5]

Thanks for the info. Really helpful!

 

[bsbeamer]

You'd have to add a partition to the drive to separate this out. Personally would avoid this for the system drive, especially one that is already in a RAID configuration. Hardware RAID is a lot different than software (especially with macOS), but it's just a messy situation. Then add APFS on top of it.

Personally would dedicate a folder on the main system SSD for scratch or temp media (everyone uses the desktop at some point for similar), then basically work off other SSDs in PCIe, TB3, USB3, etc. for project media, especially if you're looking for speed and separation. If speed above ~500MB/s isn't as much of a concern, there are a ton of options.

 

[PowerMike G5]

Thanks. yes, my main reasoning for the upgrade was to separate for these purposes and then relegate my 4 SSD setup on my Highpoint card as a pure source media drive.

I can easily dedicate one 970 Pro for the media cache/scratch drive and the other 3 SSDs for the source media drive. Just too bad re: the internal drive as I only use it for OS and apps.